[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----S. DAK., MD., OHIO, PENN., GA., VA.

[Rick Halperin]

Mar. 20



SOUTH DAKOTA:

Protesters plan death penalty vigil at penitentiary


The 11th annual Good Friday vigil against the death penalty is set for
noon to 1 p.m. Friday at the state penitentiary.

The event, hosted by the South Dakota Peace and Justice Center, will be
near the flagpole at the entrance to the Jamison Annex, just north of the
main prison.

The service includes a homily by the Rev. Peter Holland, songs, and a
remembrance ceremony for victims of murder and those on death row.

South Dakota executed its first inmate in 60 years last July when Elijah
Page was killed by lethal injection.

3 other men remain on death row in the state: Donald Moeller, Charles
Rhines and Briley Piper.

(source: Argus Leader)






MARYLAND:

Death penalty study gets go-ahead from Md. Senate


A Senate committee on Wednesday agreed to establish a commission to study
Maryland's death penalty.

The Senate Judicial Proceedings voted 7-4 in favor of a Maryland
Commission on Capital Punishment. It would include, among others,
representatives from religious faiths, law enforcement officials and the
general public, including at least one relative of a murder victim.

The committee didn't, however, vote on a bill to repeal the death penalty.

Sen. Brian E. Frosh, D-Montgomery, the chairman of the Senate committee,
told The Associated Press "it's pretty clear the votes aren't there," so
the repeal bill won't go to the full Senate.

Sen. Alex X. Mooney, R-Frederick/Washington, who cast a key vote against
the death penalty repeal last year, said Wednesday he also wouldn't have
voted for a full repeal this year.

He said he supports having the death penalty available as a penalty for
the murder of a correctional officer by a prison inmate.

Mooney voted in favor of the death-penalty study commission.

(source: The Herald-Mail)






OHIO:

Baby's killer pleads guilty in Mansfield, avoids potential death penalty


Scott A. Ritchie's mental condition saved him from facing the death
penalty.

Ritchie, 27, of 1886 Autumn Drive, Apt. 5, pleaded guilty Wednesday to an
amended charge of murder. He was charged with aggravated murder with a
death penalty specification for suffocating his 4-month-old niece, Mary
Ann Ritchie, on Jan. 22, 2007.


Prosecutors amended the charge after doctors from each side determined
Ritchie is mentally retarded. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled a mentally
retarded person is not eligible for the death penalty.

In exchange for Ritchie's plea, prosecutors dismissed charges of felonious
assault, two counts of endangering children and obstructing justice.
Richland County Common Pleas Judge James Henson imposed the mandatory
sentence of 15 years to life.

Ritchie and 4 other adults were traveling from Florida to Mansfield in a
van when Mary Ann was killed. Police believe the murder happened in
Georgia or Tennessee.

Mary Ann's 4-year-old half-sister told a crime lab technician what
happened to the baby.

Three others, Cleet Ritchie, 29; Brandi N. Denzer, 31; and Betty A. Viars,
23; have been charged with aggravated murder. Their cases are pending.

"We need his (Scott's) testimony against the other 3 defendants,"
Prosecutor James Mayer Jr. said.

Assistant Prosecutor Bambi Couch-Page implied Ritchie did not act alone.

"He is clearly someone who does what he is told," she said. "He was just
following instructions."

When asked if someone told Ritchie to suffocate Mary Ann, Couch-Page said,
"We'll just leave it at that."

Before the hearing, Penny Ritchie, Scott's mother, defended both of her
sons.

"Deep down in my heart, I know my 2 boys wouldn't do nothing like this,"
she said. "Scott and Cleet have kids of their own. I've never seen either
one of them do anything with their kids when they were that little."

Penny Ritchie criticized the handling of the case.

"2 guys were wired in his cell," she said. "That's wrong in my book."

When bailiff Bill Callis unlocked the courtroom doors, he told Penny
Ritchie she could not talk to her son. Mansfield Detective Sgt. Bob Shook,
Detective Jeff Shook and local attorney James TyRee already were seated.

Ritchie, represented by public defenders Gregory Meyers and Kim Rigby,
stood before Henson with his head tilted to the right. Sporting a wispy
mustache, Ritchie wore an orange jail jumpsuit.

Ritchie briefly addressed the court.

"I just want to tell the people that I'm sorry that it happened," he said.
"You can't change it."

As Ritchie spoke, his mother wiped tears from her eyes.

Couch-Page said she was not disappointed Ritchie won't be eligible for the
death penalty.

"It's a circumstance where he can't help what his mental status is," she
said. "(But) the fact that you're retarded doesn't mean you don't
understand that a child needs to breathe."

Henson summed up the case.

"It's an awful thing, a tragedy," the judge said.

(source: The News Journal)






PENNSYLVANIA:

Attorneys say Georges man shouldn't face death penalty


Attorneys for a Fayette County man who is to be retried in a 24-year-old
double homicide say their client should not face the death penalty because
prosecutors waited too long to seek it.

Joseph George Nara, 56, was sentenced in 1984 to life in prison after
pleading guilty to the shooting deaths of his common-law wife, DeLorean
Churby, 23, and mother-in-law, Virginia Ruth Churby, 61, at a mobile home
in Georges.

Nara, an auto body worker with a seventh-grade education, claimed he shot
the women because he was distraught about DeLorean Churby's alleged affair
with a state trooper.

In 1991, Judge William J. Franks ordered the pleas withdrawn after finding
that Nara was mentally incompetent when he entered them.

A series of appeals followed, with a federal appeals court last year
ruling in Nara's favor. After the case was scheduled for retrial,
prosecutors last year gave notice of intent to seek the death penalty.
Nara's attorneys, Sam Davis and Mark Mehalov, filed a motion this week
seeking to have the charges dismissed or the death penalty barred from
retrial.

They argued for dismissal of the charges on the grounds Nara's right to a
speedy trial was violated when the case was not retried in 1991.
Prosecutors, they said, "instead chose to pursue a 16-year string of
appeals that ultimately ended up right where the case stood in 1991, with
Mr. Nara being permitted to withdraw his guilty pleas."

During that time, witnesses for Nara have died. Their absence prevents
Nara from presenting a full defense at trial or during death-penalty
proceedings.

Nara's attorneys argued the death penalty should be barred at retrial
because prosecutors waited too long to give notice of aggravating
circumstances. They said that under Pennsylvania's Rules of Criminal
Procedure, the commonwealth is required to give such notice at or before
arraignment.

"Mr. Nara was arraigned in early 1984," Nara's attorneys wrote. "The
commonwealth's notice was not filed until Oct. 23, 2007. Under the plain
terms of Rule 802, the commonwealth's notice is more than 23 years too
late."

In the motion, Nara's attorneys have also asked that statements and
evidence be excluded from trial.

A hearing on the motion is scheduled for April 21 before Judge Steve
Leskinen.

(source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)



GEORGIA:

Lethal Injustice: No New Trial for Death Row Prisoner Troy Davis----The
Georgia Supreme Court refuses to grant a new trial to a death row prisoner
who is almost certainly innocent.


Troy Anthony Davis is an innocent man on Georgia's death row. His lawyers
believe it, his supporters believe it, even most of those who sent him to
die believe it. Accused of killing a police officer in Savannah, Ga., in
1989, his conviction was based solely on eyewitness accounts from people
who claimed to have seen Davis, then 20 years old, shoot police officer
Mark Allen MacPhail to death in a Burger King parking lot. No murder
weapon was ever found and no physical evidence linked him to the crime.
Nevertheless, he was found guilty in 1991 and sentenced to die. Troy Davis
would spend the next decade and a half on death row insisting on his
innocence. Last summer, less than 24 hours before his scheduled execution,
someone finally listened.

On the night of July 16, 2007, Troy Davis was facing death by lethal
injection when he won a last-minute stay of execution by the Georgia Board
of Pardons and Paroles. At a meeting that day lasting more than six hours,
numerous people had asked the members of the board to spare Davis' life,
among them Atlanta representative and civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis.
In the world outside, Davis had the backing of countless anti-death
penalty groups, Amnesty International, a handful of celebrities, and the
Pope. But perhaps the most compelling support that day came from five of
the original witnesses who had testified at Davis' trial. 16 years before,
they had taken the stand for the prosecution; now they urged the board to
save the life of an innocent man.

They were not alone. Of the 9 original witnesses in the trial who
implicated Davis, 7 have recanted their testimony. 3 of those 7 have
signed statements contradicting their identification of Davis as the
triggerman. 2 others who made claims that Davis had confessed to the
murder later admitted they were lying. And other witnesses have since
identified the shooter as another man altogether, a "thug" by the name of
Sylvester Nathaniel Coles, who also happened to be one of the state's
witnesses against Davis.

The Savannah police force has long defended its investigation of the
MacPhail murder, including the veracity of the witness testimonies against
Davis. But as more and more details have emerged about their claims, the
more disturbingly clear it has become that the police played a major --
and coercive role -- in building the case against him. "There was a lot of
pressure to get somebody," one former officer told the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution last year. As happens all too often with the murder
of a white cop, it didn't seem to matter whether that "somebody" was
guilty or not.

The trial began two years to the day following the death of Mark Allen
MacPhail, on August 19, 1991. Davis was convicted and sentenced to die.
Ten years later, with Davis languishing on death row, the case against him
started to unravel. Witnesses revised their stories, saying that they had
been pressured by police to implicate Davis; in 2000 one woman named
Dorothy Ferrell, who during the trial had said she was "positive" Davis
was the killer, signed an affidavit admitting that she had been on parole
at the time and, as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported, "feared she
would be locked up again if she didn't tell police what they wanted to
hear." In her statement she said: "I don't know which of the guys did the
shooting, because I didn't see that part."

A sample of other statements:

"I was totally unsure whether [Davis] was the person who shot the
officer."

"I told them Troy confessed to me. None of it was true."

As the truth came out, a movement of support formed around Davis -- but it
would take his imminent execution and a barrage of media coverage for
anyone in an official position to step in. Weeks after Davis' brush with
death, on Aug. 3, 2007, on the basis of witness recantations and other
developments, the Georgia Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal for new
trial for Troy Davis. Oral arguments took place on Nov. 13. Four months
later, this past Monday, March 16, the court made its ruling: Troy Davis
would not get a new trial.

In a 4-3 decision, the court decided that not even the seven recanted
testimonies were enough to merit a new trial. "We simply cannot disregard
the jury's verdict in this case," wrote Justice Harold Melton. Never mind
that the jury was working with hopelessly tainted evidence -- and that two
of the jurors have declared that if they knew then what they know now,
they would never have voted to convict Troy Davis. As Chief Justice Leah
Ward Sears wrote in her dissent: "If recantation testimony  shows
convincingly that prior trial testimony was false, it simply defies all
logic and morality to hold that it must be disregarded categorically." But
logic and morality have little say in a system that straps people to a
gurney, outfits them with intravenous lines and murders them with a lethal
cocktail. Once again, Troy Davis confronts this fate.

Even the most hardbitten death penalty lawyers and activists were stunned
by the court ruling. Georgia defense attorney Chris Adams, a member of
Davis' defense team, called it "a heartbreaking day." "I was very
surprised by the decision on Monday," he said over the phone on Tuesday
morning. "We felt that the proper course was to hear all the witnesses
and then to make a judgment call." Instead, the ruling means that new
evidence that could clear Davis will likely never make it into the
courtroom. To Adams, this is a travesty. This case, an "actual innocence
case," is "the kind of case you go to law school for," he said. "You would
hope all your cases would have this kind of significance -- or that none
of them would."

Almost 20 years after his death, family members of officer MacPhail remain
unmoved by Davis' strong innocence claims. On Tuesday, his mother told the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she was satisfied with the Supreme
Court's ruling. "I wonder, what do all those witnesses remember after 18
years?" MacPhail asked. "There is no new evidence. No mother should go
through what I have been through."

It's hard to imagine that recantations by seven out of nine witnesses does
not qualify as new evidence. And few as of yet have seen fit to talk to
Davis' family about what they have been through, living out this nightmare
for 18 years. Among them is Davis' sister, Martina Correia, a courageous
and outspoken activist on his behalf, who is facing her own life or death
struggle. While her brother has been fighting for his life on death row,
she has been battling breast cancer.

On Monday, Martina stood on the Capitol steps in Atlanta and reiterated
her belief that justice will prevail for her brother. "We have had years
of disappointment before, but we still have fight in us. We are not giving
up."

The case of Troy Davis is a horrible miscarriage of justice. But it can
hardly be considered an aberration. Not in the context of the criminal
justice system in Georgia, the only state in the country that does not
provide lawyers for death row prisoners making final appeals. And not
after the passage, in 1996, of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death
Penalty Act, which greased the wheels of the country's execution machinery
by sharply curtailing avenues for appeals and rendering new developments
like the ones in Davis' case too little too late. And certainly not in the
context of the 11th Circuit, whose courts had no problem signing off on an
execution in Alabama in late January, while the rest of the country has
executions on hold pending a Supreme Court decision on the
constitutionality of lethal injection. Davis is not just the victim of a
corrupt police investigation; he is the victim of a system designed to
railroad prisoners to the execution chamber. What the Supreme Court ruling
shows in this case, says Adams, is that "the rules really seem to favor
finality over fairness."

Barring a successful appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, Davis will once
again find himself at the mercy of the state parole board. Asked if there
is reason to be optimistic given the board's past attention to the
revelations in his case, Adams said, "Boy, you know, it's really hard to
feel optimistic about it today." But when it comes to fighting for the
life of an innocent man, there's not much choice. "You've got to be
optimistic."

(source: AlterNet)






VIRGINIA:

HOTSEAT-M*A*S*H man: Just call him Mike


Hollywood is full of people who've squandered their talent and name
recognition to become tabloid fodder. Mike Farrell took another path.

Way before the beloved television series M*A*S*H ended its 11-season run
with the most-watched final episode ever on February 28, 1983, Farrell,
who played B.J. Hunnicut, already was using his fame to promote human
rights issues. He put his celebrity up against former Miss America/orange
juice queen Anita Bryant, who ignited a homophobic campaign in Florida in
1977 that spread across the country.

Farrell comes to Charlottesville for the Virginia Festival of the Book,
and at his March 29 appearance at the Paramount he's ready to wing it and
talk about what the audience wants to hear. He's learned from promoting
his 2007 book, Just Call Me Mike: A Journey to Actor and Activist, "Some
are there because of M*A*S*H, some for other things," referring to his
myriad roles in activism. "I try to keep it fluid."

And no, he's not sick of being asked about M*A*S*H or about Alan Alda,
even though "I'm well past the 2,000th time" on Alda, he says. More than
25 years after the show ended, Farrell sounds profoundly grateful to have
had the opportunity to be on what some consider the best TV show ever.

In his book, he describes how he learned at an early age that "Those with
power are often cruel to those without. I hated that more than anything,
but had no idea what to do about it...."

As a young adult, he also learned a lesson he's carried through life:
"Everyone deserves what everyone wants: love, attention, and respect."

Those 2 lessons have taken him all over the world to genocidal hot spots,
where he lends his voice to bring awareness to the horrors man inflicts
upon his fellows. His fight against the death penalty has taken him to
more prisons and more death rows than any other actor, particularly one
who's never been arrested.

Not surprisingly, his opposition has brought him to Virginia many times.

"Virginia is a killing state," says Farrell in a phone interview. He still
hopes that his friend, Joe Giarratano, who narrowly escaped execution and
whom Farrell believes was the victim of a false confession in 1979, may
one day be released. (After the book fest, he's going to see Giarratano.)

Farrell has protested injustice since the 1960s. Does he ever despair that
the world is not a better place? "The nature of the optimist is to find
hope," he replies. "I see strong evidence of the rise of the human rights
movement around the world. I see a rise in the United States about the
inappropriateness of the death penalty."

It hasn't been all activism following M*A*S*H. Farrell appeared in the
series Providence for 5 years, and more recently the post-M*A*S*H
generation may have seen him in Desperate Housewives, playing the
manipulative father of the man Eva Longoria married. That role is unlikely
to continue because, Farrell points out, the husband dies.

His production company tried to get the story of his friend, physician
Patch Adams, made. The resulting film starring Robin Williams made a
bundle, but Farrell has some choice words about its director, Tom Shadyac,
who rendered Charlottesville star struck in 2006 while he was here filming
the most expensive comedy ever, Evan Almighty. Farrell knew the real Patch
Adams, and was furious about the buffoonish, critically panned comedy
Shadyac made in 1998 coming off the success of Ace Ventura and Liar, Liar.

"I consider him a much over-rated talent," says Farrell. "I'm still angry.
He treated us shabbily." And according to Farrell, while the movie grossed
over $400 million, not a cent went toward the free hospital that was the
real Patch Adams's dream. (Charlottesville, however, is getting a
multi-purpose community center from Shadyac.)

In the presidential election arena, Farrell supported John Edwards until
he dropped out of the race. Now he favors Barack Obama, but he's not out
campaigning for him.

"No one has asked me," says Farrell. And with Farrell, people in need have
learned over the years, all you have to do is ask.

Age: 69

What do you like best about Charlottesville? My friend Marie Deans

Least? Lovely place. What's not to like?

Favorite hangout here? Don't have one. Is there a natural food restaurant?

Most overrated virtue? Mine or yours?

People would be surprised to know about you: Many things

What would you change about yourself? I'd probably sleep more.

Proudest accomplishment? My children. Next is being part of saving Joe
Giarratano's life.

People find most annoying about you: Ask them.

Whom do you admire? Many people. Marie and Joe, mentioned about, people
with compassion, survivors who understand, Jimmy Carter, Joan Baez, Caesar
Chavez, Gloria Steinem, Dolores Huerta, Maxine Waters... see, you've
gotten me started.

Favorite book? Too many. I'm reading about 10 books now. The one I'm just
finishing that has infuriated me is The Innocent Man by your neighbor,
John Grisham.

Subject that causes you to rant? The death penalty, mindless
authoritarianism, bigotry

Biggest 21st-century thrill? Riding my motorcycle to the Arctic Circle

Biggest 21st-century creep out? Visiting death row

What do you drive? '92 Toyota pickup and an '06 BMW Adventure

In your car CD player right now: My car doesn't have a CD player.

Next journey? Motorcycle trip around the world

Most trouble you've ever gotten in? Having the audacity to disagree with
popular opinion

Regret: The loss of good friends

Favorite comfort food: Veggie burger

Always in your refrigerator: Natural food

Must-see TV: I don't watch it.

Describe a perfect day. Swimming, reading, taking a ride, then dinner with
my wife and kids

Walter Mitty fantasy: Motorcycle ride around the world

Who'd play you in the movie? Me

Most embarrassing moment? Too many

Best advice you ever got? Love.

Favorite bumper sticker? When Jesus said "Love your enemies," I think he
probably meant "Don't kill them."

(source: The Hook)